A forum for discussing matters of moment, from a curmudgeonly perspective. (The ideas posted here do not necessarily represent those of any organization with which I am a part). Rude and insulting remarks will not be published, but civil disagreement is welcome.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Did Jesus Exist?
Some of you may be interested to follow the debate between Ben Goren, myself, and Craig Blomberg on Jesus' existence. They are under "Jesus in History" on this blog. I'm happy that my colleague, Dr. Blomberg, is weighing in on this.
I've been thinking about this on and off again. I'm a Christian, and so I know that Jesus exists (which entails He existed obviously). However as a means of showing it to others, I've been considering a great deal the recent phenom of Jesus-deniers. As with shock-and-awe warfare, the initial brunt of such adamant denials are startling and any open-minded person doesn't just shrug them off. However initially rattled I may have been upon first encountering this phenom, I've been even more rattled by what I find to be basically a total lack of Jesus-denial in the research I've done in my university's library. The closest thing I've found so far is an article from the mid-70's, stating that every once and a while Jesus-deniers come about, but the majority of scholarship simply aren't compelled to entertain the view any longer. This is troublesome for me as someone who is trying to take Jesus-deniers seriously.
I've been thinking about this on and off again. I'm a Christian, and so I know that Jesus exists (which entails He existed obviously). However as a means of showing it to others, I've been considering a great deal the recent phenom of Jesus-deniers. As with shock-and-awe warfare, the initial brunt of such adamant denials are startling and any open-minded person doesn't just shrug them off. However initially rattled I may have been upon first encountering this phenom, I've been even more rattled by what I find to be basically a total lack of Jesus-denial in the research I've done in my university's library. The closest thing I've found so far is an article from the mid-70's, stating that every once and a while Jesus-deniers come about, but the majority of scholarship simply aren't compelled to entertain the view any longer. This is troublesome for me as someone who is trying to take Jesus-deniers seriously.
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